Azerbaijani Culture Friends Foundation (ACFF) - is a charity foundation of Azerbaijan. The foundation is non-governmental. [1]
Azerbaijani Culture Friends Foundation was founded in 1995. Mehriban Aliyeva, goodwill ambassador of UNESCO and ISESCO, and Member of Parliament, is the chairperson of the foundation. [2]
The foundation's object is to popularize and publicize the national culture, introduce the culture to foreign countries, integrate Azerbaijani people into the global culture, and make new international relations. The work of the Foundation is divided into 3 sectors: cultural events, charity actions, and publication.
Organizing jubilee nights for famous art figures of Azerbaijan, publish several magazine and CDs for art of Azerbaijan. Foundation organizes concerts, theater performances, presentations. Among the famous events that foundation held is "Great Silk Road" International Classical Music Festival and Days of Korean Culture held together with SEBA (Seoul-Baku) Azerbaijan-Korean Cultural Exchange Association. The main objective of the foundation is to popularize Azerbaijan Mugham on the world-scale. "Baku Mugham Center" was founded as a step in this direction. The music album "Karabakh khanendeleri", "Baku Fall" international festival IX East-West International Film Festival in Baku, "Advertisement Greedy Night" are also held within the framework of the foundation's activity plan. [3]
Azerbaijani music is the musical tradition of the Azerbaijani people from Azerbaijan Republic. It builds on folk traditions that reach back nearly 100 years. Azerbaijani music has evolved under the badge of monody, producing rhythmically diverse melodies. Music from Azerbaijan has a branch mode system, where chromatisation of major and minor scales is of great importance.
Mugham or Mughamat is one of the many classical compositions from Azerbaijan, contrasting with tasnif and ashik.
Khurshidbanu Natavan was an Azerbaijani poet and philanthropist. She is considered one of the best lyrical poets of Azerbaijan. Her poems are in either Azerbaijani or Persian and she was most notable for her lyrical ghazals.
The Tofiq Bahramov Republican Stadium is a multi-purpose stadium in Baku, Azerbaijan. It is currently used mostly for football matches. It served as the home ground for the Azerbaijan national football team until they moved to the Baku Olympic Stadium. It holds 31,200 seats making it the second largest stadium in the country. The stadium is also used by the Azerbaijan Premier League clubs in the final rounds of European competitions.
Mehriban Arif gyzy Aliyeva is an Azerbaijani politician and physician who is the vice president and First Lady of Azerbaijan.
Vagif Mustafazadeh, also known as Vaqif Mustafa-Zadeh, was an Azerbaijani jazz pianist and composer, acclaimed for fusing jazz and the traditional Azerbaijani folk music known as mugham. According to many world famous jazz musicians, Mustafazadeh is one of the pioneers and "the architect of jazz in Azerbaijan".
Bilateral relations exist between the Republic of Azerbaijan and the Republic of Bulgaria in political, socio-economic, cultural and other spheres. Cooperation is carried out in such areas as transport and transit of goods, tourism, pharmaceuticals, agriculture, science and high technologies, education, military equipment, etc.
The Azerbaijani jazz is a popular variety of jazz, widespread in Azerbaijan. It covers a broad range of styles and often features a blend with traditional Azeri music. Among modern famed Azeri jazz musicians are Aziza Mustafazadeh, who was influenced by Bill Evans and Keith Jarrett, Rain Sultanov, Isfar Sarabski, Shahin Novrasli.
The International Mugham Center of Azerbaijan is a center of Azerbaijani arts and music aiming to promote, preserve and popularize the mugham genre of Azerbaijani music. It is located in Baku Boulevard, in downtown Baku.
The Heydar Aliyev Foundation is a charitable foundation headed by Azerbaijan's First Lady Mehriban Aliyeva. The foundation is named after Azerbaijan's former president, Heydar Aliyev - the father of the incumbent president Ilham Aliyev.
Leyla Aliyeva is the first daughter of the President of Azerbaijan, Ilham Aliyev.
The Uzeyir Hajibeyov International Music Festival is held in September, since 2009, in Azerbaijan. Musical events are held in several cities of Azerbaijan, and the main ceremonies take place in Baku.
Baba Vaziroglu is a prosaist, poet, translator, member of Union of Azerbaijani Writers since 1981, laureate of Republic Komsomol award, and an Honoured Art Figure of Azerbaijan Republic since 1 August 2005.
Majmaus-shuara was a 19th-century literary council in Azerbaijan.
Gulara Aliyeva was an Azerbaijani musician.
The Opening Ceremony of the 2015 European Games was the official opening ceremony held in the afternoon at 9:00PM Azerbaijan Time (GMT+4) on June 12, 2015 in the Baku Olympic Stadium in Baku, Azerbaijan. It was attended by the President of Azerbaijan Ilham Aliyev, the President of the International Olympic Committee, Thomas Bach, the Vice President of Azerbaijan, Mehriban Aliyeva, and the President of the European Olympic Committee Patrick Hickey.The ceremony was attended by 68,000 spectators gathered at the Olympic Stadium, as well as hundreds of millions of online viewers. More than 300 creative teams from 28 countries were involved in organizing the ceremony. The cost of organizing of the ceremony was about 100 million U.S. dollars. The opening ceremony was directed by artistic choreographer Dimitris Papaioannou who was praised for his work during 2004 Summer Olympics.
The festivals in Azerbaijan are held throughout the year in different regions of the country. The city of Baku is considered as the most important center of the festivals due to their scale and types. The festivals in each region, on the other hand, represent its own local characteristics mostly related to its food, fruit and so on.
Nargiz Arif qizi Pashayeva is an Honored Scientist of Azerbaijan, Honorary member of ANAS, Vice-President of ANAS, Doctor of Philology, rector of the Lomonosov Moscow State University's Baku branch, head of the Nizami Ganjavi Scientific Center of the University of Oxford, from the Azerbaijani side, Chairperson of the Board of Trustees of the British Foundation for the Study of Azerbaijan and the Caucasus, permanent member of Chancellor’s Court of Benefactors of University of Oxford., co-chairman of the Anglo-Azerbaijani Society.
Azerbaijan—France relations refer to the bilateral relations between the Republic of Azerbaijan and the French Republic in the political, socio-economic, cultural, and other spheres.
The Khari Bulbul Music Festival is an international music festival held in Shusha and other cities of the Karabakh region. The festival was first held in 1989 to commemorate the 100th anniversary of the Azerbaijani khananda Seyid Shushinski, and it was held annually until 1992, when the city was captured during the First Nagorno-Karabakh War. The festival was reinstated in Shusha, the cultural capital of Azerbaijan, on 12 May 2022, when Azerbaijan regained control over the city during the 2020 Nagorno-Karabakh war.